Kellie Ann Lundon-Cormican, 39, of Crookston, was sentenced by Distritct Judge Michael Kraker today to 119 months in prison, with just over 79 months served, for five counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. The charges stem from incidents in August and November 2007 when she had sexual contact with a 14-year-old boy. She pleaded guilty to the charges in December, under an agreement that five first-degree charges were dropped. She will have 10 years of supervised release after her time served and will register as a sex offender.

Minnesota House bill that would prevent registered sex offenders from using social networking Web sites passed through two committees and is now awaiting inclusion in the public safety omnibus bill, said the bill's chief author, Karla Bigham, DFL-Cottage Grove. The bill would make it illegal for registered sex offenders to use Web sites like Facebook and MySpace and gaming Web sites that allow them to chat with other players. Registered sex offenders are already subject to warrantless searches of their homes, bodies and cars, Bigham said. This legislation would extend that to computers.

Republicans have introduced bills that would ban abortions designed to select a sex of a child and forbid human cloning. Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life supports the efforts. "Minnesotans shake their heads in disbelief when they learn that an unborn child can be killed in Minnesota solely because of his or her sex," said MCCL Executive Director Scott Fischbach.

On Independence Day this summer, the Clelia II will slip into Duluth's harbor and tie up near the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center. Then 100 passengers will be shuttled to the Great Lakes Aquarium, where they'll go through a U.S. Customs check. It might not seem significant, but that customs check could usher in a new era in cruise boat tourism for Duluth. It will mark the first time a cruise is starting or ending in Duluth. Cruise ships have made stops in Duluth before, but they haven't started or concluded journeys here. "This is pretty big to have the exchange of passengers.

ST. PAUL - Al Franken's campaign wants to remove a pile of northwestern Minnesota ballots from the U.S. Senate election tally as Norm Coleman's team nears the end of its court case. The Democrat's campaign said 61 Becker County ballots should be removed from the election tally because local officials did not follow state law about ballot documentation and storage. New evidence was found in recent weeks indicating the votes, which favored Coleman, should not have been counted, Franken's campaign said Monday.

ST. PAUL - Minnesota's ailing state coffers could get a $2 billion jolt from the federal economic stimulus package, but the funding comes with conditions and will complicate Capitol budget talks. State finance officials said Thursday that early number-crunching shows Minnesota could get more than $3 billion from the $790 billion economic recovery plan nearing completion in Congress.

ST. PAUL - Lawmakers rejected a plan requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, but expect to see the legislation again. A Minnesota House committee on Thursday rejected the bill by Rep. Tom Emmer that would have required voters to show photo identification, such as a driver's license, when they vote. "Without a photo ID requirement as part of our election process ... it calls into question the integrity of the process," said Emmer, R-Delano. The photo identification proposal is not new at the Capitol and traditionally falls along partisan lines.

Some senators were not happy Tuesday when they learned the state Education Department paid $181,000 for a report on Q Comp that was released the night before the legislative auditor released what they considered a similar report. "It does feel duplicative," Assistant Senate Majority Leader Tarryl Clark, DFL-St. Cloud, told Education Commissioner Alice Seagren. "I'm just concerned about a couple hundred thousand dollars in this situation." Seagren told Clark the study was funded by federal, not state, money.